De Anza, West Valley renew their longtime men's basketball rivarly

It's a rivalry that dates back to 1967 when De Anza College first popped up out of the Cupertino landscape, and it will be renewed on Friday night when the Dons host West Valley College in a key men's basketball game in the South Division of the Coast Conference.

From that first year when legendary coach Tony Nunes sent his Dons to the floor against the Larry Jennings-coached Vikings, the rivalry has grown to become one of the most intense in area community college athletics.

And the Dons and Vikes will be at it against when they tip off at 7 p.m. on Jan. 18 at De Anza's Steven Creek Boulevard home.

The Vikings enter the game with the 10-7 season mark after posting a win in their only Coast Conference game to date, a tight 61-57 over another rival, San Jose City College, last Friday night in Saratoga.

D'vaughn Mann, a 6-foot-5 sophomore forward from Kennedy High School of Fremont, muscled 25 points to lead West Valley to the win over the Jaguars. Mann jammed 10 field goals and hit 5 of 6 shots from the free-throw line.

Chris Murry, a 5-foot-10 sophomore guard from Kennedy, was the big threat from the outside for the Vikings, burying five three-points on his way to a 21-point night.

Rounding out the scoring for the Vikes were Chris Aitchison (Del Mar) with five points, Jason Anderson (Archbishop Mitty) and Malek Kanaan (Al-Ma'aref School) with four apiece and Damon Jones (Skyline) with two.

Bobby Gray (Nimitz) and Frankie Johnson (Rodriguez) led the Jags with 12 points apiece and Aaron Armstead (Wisconsin) had 11. Gray and Armstead each drilled a pair of threes and Johnson had one.

The Dons are on the road this week, visiting Cabrillo in Aptos on Jan. 16, 5 p.m., before facing the Vikings on Friday in Cupertino.

San Jose had dropped a 74-61 decision to Cabrillo to open play last week. Johnson poured in a team-high 27 points, including five threes. Russell had eight points, Armstead seven, Williams six, Gray and Turner four apiece, Stephan Hester (Nimitz) three and Nedim Mekanic (Willow Glen) two.

The San Jose women, meanwhile, opened Coast Conference South Division play with a lopsided 82-40 win over Cabrillo.

Victoria Aguilera tossed in 24 points and Aiwekhoe Okungbowa finished with 21 to lead the Lady Jaguars to the win. Alyssa Ybarra (Mitty) buried four threes on the way to a 17-point night.